I am a fan of Rick Riordan, I love his writings. Percy Jackson series was just amazing and it brought back my love for books. The Egyptian take of the series was just simply amazing, the innovative writing of those books was what kept a little (overstretched) suspense and kept the story interesting. The take on Roman characters and combining it with the Greeks was fun too, so obviously when I heard about the series starting on Norse Myth I ordered the book online and got to reading.

When you have so many characters, it would not be possible to not have some similarities in few of them. Magnus is by some extent, not very much different from Percy, the protagonist of the first mythological fiction series by the author.

Percy was an impatient character who would just jump down into the chaos without much of a second thought, never having a plan. He has a sword which can compress itself into a pen and he can heal himself and others using water.
Magnus is an impatient character as well but he is a bit cautious as he doesn’t fair well in fighting situations. He has a sword which can compress down to a rune pendent and he can heal others with just his will.

That’s the similar part but where Percy relies on his warrior instinct and power of water to fight – creating tornadoes, Magnus can ask his sword to fight for him. Yes, the talking sword will fight instead of Magnus wielding it and getting into battle. The price would be the energy required for all the effort taken during the fight will be drained from Magnus once the sword returns to him.

Since the last books included Roman and Greeks fighting alongside, I wonder if the similarities are there for a reason. We could very well see Magnus and Percy teaming up one day.

The first book in this series fairs well. Nothing amazingly new, which you haven’t already read in the other series, there is a prophecy which is known from the start of the book, even after trying repeatedly to stop it, eventually that event takes place – would seem almost that if they didn’t try so hard to stop it, that would have never taken place, and in the end, they manage to successfully stop the end of the world, which everyone from start told them would be impossible – just the same plot you have been reading in around 13 books now.

Also, the usual going around into different tasks to meet random new characters, who might have a impact on the overall story eventually, that you will figure out after thinking why do they have to do this OR some random encounter giving a hint/teaser on what is to come in near future (next books) for the heroes to face.

Still Rick Riordan somehow managed to keep the same concept fresh even after so many books. Eventually you start wondering, maybe all the heroes are having a cursed life, things falling up at the last moment, prophecies that never fail, dreams which always help in filling up the gaps in the story, sometimes figuring out the evil plan in the dreams and Gods who are just there – never lifting a finger to help.

I found this book to be not as captivating as the other titles, maybe cause this book was a stepping stone again, for a new character introduction for us and that requires some details to be put out there which might make the story slow but if absent might make it look incomplete.

As always, I am a big fan of the mythological series and would definitely run to the book store without a doubt, once the second part releases.

If you haven’t already been bored of the writing of the best mythological fiction writer, then in my opinion you should definitely go and grab this one too, you won’t be disappointed. Maybe you would enjoy a new journey even more so, than the already existing series. A refresher.